Data recording on a medium, which can be optically accessed, e.g., an optical disk, requires about 10 mW power. However, a semiconductor laser, which is widely used as a light source for such recording has only low optical output of about 20 to 30 mW. For this reason, an optical output from a semiconductor laser must be effectively utilized, and high coupling efficiency is required for an optical system.
Meanwhile, when data is reproduced from an optical disk, higher reproducing performance can be obtained if light beams becomes incident to lenses more uniformly. FIG. 1 shows this phenomenon. An aperture 2A of a lens is smaller than a diameter 2W of a beam, and as A/W becomes smaller, MTF becomes higher.
In other words, high reproducing performance and high coupling efficiency are contrary requirements. Therefore, a recording/reproducing optical system which satisfies both the requirements and can cope with variations in optical constants of optical elements has not yet been known.